RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more tumor cells.

PURPOSE: Phase I/II trial to study the effectiveness of combining BMS-247550 with cisplatin in treating patients who have metastatic or recurrent head and neck cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the recommended phase II dose of BMS-247550 when administered with cisplatin in patients with metastatic or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. (Phase I)
• Determine the toxic effects of this regimen in these patients.
• Determine the response rate, time to progression, and survival of patients treated with this regimen. (Phase II)
• Determine the pharmacokinetics of this regimen in these patients.
• Correlate selected markers from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and tumor samples with toxicity and response in patients treated with this regimen.

OUTLINE: This is an open-label, dose-escalation study of BMS-247550.

• Patients receive BMS-247550 IV over 3 hours and cisplatin IV over 30-60 minutes on day 1. Courses repeat every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Cohorts of 3-6 patients receive escalating doses of BMS-247550 until the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) is determined. The MTD is defined as the dose at which at least 2 of 3 or 2 of 6 patients experience dose-limiting toxicity. Once the MTD is determined, up to 10 additional patients receive treatment as above at the recommended phase II dose of BMS-247550.
• Phase II: Patients receive treatment as in Phase I at the recommended phase II dose of BMS-247550.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: Approximately 3-47 patients (20-27 for phase II) will be accrued for this study within 1 year.

Ages Eligible for Study:  18 Years and above,  Genders Eligible for Study:  Both

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck considered incurable by surgery or radiotherapy
• No nasopharyngeal disease as primary site
• Extensive, local-regional or distant metastatic disease
• Newly diagnosed OR
• Recurrent disease after initial treatment with surgery or radiotherapy (including neoadjuvant chemotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy)
• Measurable disease
• If only site of measurable disease is in a previously irradiated area, disease progression after radiotherapy must be documented

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age

• 18 and over

Performance status

• ECOG 0-1

Life expectancy

• Not specified

Hematopoietic

• Granulocyte count at least 1,500/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3

Hepatic

• Bilirubin no greater than 2.0 mg/dL
• Transaminases no greater than 2 times upper limit of normal (ULN) (5 times ULN if liver involvement)

Renal

• Creatinine no greater than 1.5 mg/dL

Other

• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No evidence of active infection
• No other malignancy within the past 2 years except curatively treated stage 0 or I cancer

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy

• Not specified

Chemotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• No prior chemotherapy for recurrent disease

Endocrine therapy

• Not specified

Radiotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• At least 6 months since prior radiotherapy and recovered

Surgery

• See Disease Characteristics
• Recovered from prior surgery